LOS ANGELES — First the Rangers were granted hope, now they’re looking for payback.
With Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals set to take place on Friday night at Staples Center, the Blueshirts have very recent memories of what transpired here late last week, losing two games with three overtimes and four separate two-goal leads blown, cursing the heavens for their malignant fate as they went down in the best-of-seven series, 2-0.
After suffering a 3-0 shutout loss in Game 3, the Rangers did manage to stave off a sweep with a 2-1 Game 4 win on Wednesday night at the Garden, allowing them to cut the Kings’ lead to 3-1, enliven some hope in their dressing room and among their fan base, and create a new emotion all together.
“I kind of want some redemption,” Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh said at a full-team practice here on Thursday. “I thought we played some of our better games in this series in here. We had some early leads and let them slip away, and for us we’ve got to continue to have a good start, and this time finish the job and play a 60-minute game here.”
In the day between Games 3 and 4, the Rangers were distraught. Although they were saying all the right things about trying to take it one game at a time, they seemed to be shell shocked by the position they were in, having just needed six games to beat the Canadiens in the conference finals.
“It’s one of those things where obviously when we advanced past Montreal, we never expected to go down 3-0,” first-line center Derek Stepan said. “That’s not something you script in your head, but that’s what it is, and that’s the reality of it. Now we’re only focused on one game at a time. It sounds like you guys have probably heard that a hundred times, but we really can’t do anything else other than focus on that.”
The Rangers are hoping to learn from the experience of that Montreal series, one in which they were up on the Canadiens, 3-1, and then came out for Game 5 at the Bell Centre and were run off the ice — the actual case with Henrik Lundqvist, who was pulled — en route to an embarrassing 7-4 loss. It was a letdown game, for sure, but after needing the maximum of 14 games to get through the first two rounds, it was a bit of an eye-opener just when they might have begun to get ahead of themselves.
And it was quickly rectified with a 1-0 win in Game 6, a game that has been heralded as their best game of the postseason and one that clinched an appearance in the franchise’s first Cup finals in 20 years.
“We had Game 5 in their building and I remember our mind-set was we just thought about going to the Stanley Cup final,” forward Derick Brassard said. “We were thinking about the outcome of the game instead of just playing the game the right way. And I remember the feeling the next day, when we showed up and played a great game [in Game 6].
“I think the mind-set is totally different right now, because we have nothing to lose. We do, because we are playing for the Stanley Cup, but at the same time, it’s 3-1, all the pressure is on them to close out the series and it’s never easy.”
No, it’s never easy, but that goes for both teams. Brassard’s rare variance away from the cliché — actually admitting the Rangers have something to lose — was refreshing, but doesn’t change the message.
There may be hope for the Rangers, but without some California redemption, the season is over.
“I think we’re due for a win in this building,” veteran forward Martin St. Louis said. “We’ve done some good things in this building. Unfortunately we didn’t get a win here, but we all know these two games could have gone either way, and we’re looking for that game to go our way [Friday].
“We’re going to have to earn it.”
Additional reporting by Tim Bontemps